3.5 Gallon Pico (1 Viewer)

[3rd Coast Reefer]

I've been eyeing pico builds for a while and saw this tank at the LFS so I figured lets give it a shot. I got the tank wet July 26 and cycled with fritz turbo start and water from my 40G. I was trying to create a budget friendly pico and I think I achieved that, I already had the rock but with the tank (on sale), light, heater, filter and sand I'm sitting right around $120. It's very exciting setting up a new tank, creating the aquascape, shopping for equipment and finally getting it wet and running to adding coral and other inhabitants. Can't wait to get this stocked with more coral and see how this progresses and grows.


Aquarium: Tideline 3.5 Gallons
Stand: Night Stand
Light: Lominie Asta 20
Filter: Nicrew Slim HOB Filter
Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro
Heater: AquaMiracle 50W
Inhabitants: 3 Sexy Shrimp

 

[3rd Coast Reefer]

 

[frankc]

50W seems like a lot of heater for a tank that size, but then I tend to underheat my tanks.

 

[3rd Coast Reefer]

It is oversized but the bedroom ranges anywhere from 65-68 at night and I wanted to make sure the heater could handle that temp swing at night.
We like to sleep cold

 

[Daniel92481]

Cool setup. I’ve always liked the Tideline tanks.

 

[3rd Coast Reefer]

Thank you, tideline does have some nice tanks in their lineup. The LFS usually has a few in stock.

 

[3rd Coast Reefer]

Been a little while since i've updated here but the pico is still chugging along. I've upgraded the light and added more coral. This thing has been alot of fun building

 

[gregg]

looks very cool, have you seen any growth?

 

[3rd Coast Reefer]

I recently upgraded the light to the Spectra AquaKnight V2 and also upgraded the tank to UNS 45S. The tideline was getting tight to do water changes and I wanted something to open the scape and bit more. I think the Monti cap is growing but nothing significant on any of the acans.

 

[3rd Coast Reefer]

Oct 12, 2025

Things are going well in the pico, lost all of the sexy shrimp but corals are still doing their thing.

 

[Ravila101]

Hey man , tank looks great!! Question, what are you using for filtration in the new tank??

 

[3rd Coast Reefer]

There is no mechanical filtration on this pico with the exception of a surface skimmer that I'll run every couple of weeks to get rid of the film that will build up. I imagine I'm only able to get away with this because for a while it was only sexy shrimp in here and now it's just snails, hermits and coral.

 

[Cody]

How are you managing topoff? Just manually adding?

 

[3rd Coast Reefer]

Yes I just top off manually daily. I've been wanting to add an ATO I just don't have any space for a container where this sits.